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sponges
text index | photo
index
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| Phylum Porifera |
| Yellow
prickly branching sponge Pseudoceratina purpurea* Family Pseudoceratinidae updated Dec 11 Where seen? This rubbery prickly sponge usually yellow or with yellow tips is commonly seen on coral rubble on many of our Southern shores. Features: Extremely variable in shape from knobs, lobes, to slender branching stems (8-12cm) emerging from an encrusting base (20-30cm). The sponge can cover large areas of coral rubble or small stones. Tips rounded or flattened. The surface feels rubbery and slippery with small bumps that appear spiky and prickly when the sponge is out of water. There are many tiny holes sprinkled all over the sponge. Colours range from bright yellow, green-yellow to olive. Often mainly dark or olive green with yellowish tips. The sponge's species name 'purpurea' means purple. Which seems rather odd as they are not purple at all when alive. A dead sponge, however, rapidly oxidises to a dark brown or deep purple. As taxonomic work on sponges is often based on preserved specimens, this is probably how this sponge got its scientific name. Another sponge species of a different family (Dactylospongia elegans, Family Thorectidae) can look very similar and the two kinds of sponges are difficult to tell apart in the field. Sponging clams: Sometimes, the sponge is inhabited by Sponge finger oysters (Vulsella sp.), a kind of clam that lives only in sponges. These are completely covered by the sponge, with only a slit on the surface of the sponge where the bivalve's shell opening is. Often, these bivalves result in flat blade or leaf-like protrusions in the sponge. Human uses: This sponge contains the chemical psammaplin A which is reported to be a powerful blocker of several components of the processing machinery in cancer cells, preventing them from growing and dividing. More details. |
 Beting Bemban Besar, May 11  Usually dark with yellow tips.  Many tiny holes on a bumpy surface. |
 St. John's Island, Oct 11 |
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Yellow prickly branching sponges on Singapore shores
 Pulau Semakau, Jan 05  |
 St. John's Island, Sep 04  |
 Sisters Islands, Dec 05  |
 Pulau Salu, Aug 10 |
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more photos of yellow prickly branching sponges on Singapore shores
part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4
*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.
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